A seller of goods or services often has different prices that it offers to buyers, depending upon who the buyer is and the quantity of items being purchased. For example, for a buyer that purchases large quantities of an item, the seller is often willing to reduce the price per unit, and thus the profit per item, because of the large order. Thus, a company that purchases large quantities of items, such as office supplies, will expect to receive some discounted price. On the other hand, businesses that order small quantities of items do not have the purchasing power to demand any discounted price. These businesses therefore are forced to pay full price for those items.
Because of these volume discounts, many of the larger corporations are able to obtain reduced rates for the goods and services that they purchase during the ordinary course of business. For example, a large company such as BellSouth may not only automatically receive a discounted price but may be able to receive bids from competing sellers and negotiate an optimal price for the items. In fact, many large businesses enter into supply contracts with various sellers, such as sellers of office supplies. While large businesses may enjoy volume discounts, small businesses are typically unable to obtain anything other than the standard price. Often, these small businesses by themselves, do not purchase sufficient quantities of items for the seller to offer any discount.
Even though orders from small businesses may comprise the bulk of a company's business, much of the efforts by a seller are directed to the large businesses. A seller can more easily focus its efforts on selling its goods and services to a limited number of large businesses than it can with a multitude of smaller businesses. In other words, a seller has a certain amount of time and money that it can devote toward marketing its goods and services directly with other businesses and, given the potential for supplying large quantities of items over an extended period of time, the seller directs its attention to the larger customers. The sellers simply do not have the resources to market themselves directly with every small business in its area.
A need therefore exists for systems and methods that provide greater purchasing power to small businesses. A need furthermore exists for systems and methods that increase the effectiveness of a seller's marketing efforts to small businesses.